Bond With Your Environment

Over three millennia of cosmology, osmosis, Fengshui, psychology and now, Selftropy tells us that influences exist between us and our environment. It’s here; it’s real; it’s useful-bank on it. In a world where experience is everything, why limit yourself to the tangible when you can have so much more? The borders of real and surreal, virtual…

IDS Toronto 2023 in review (Interior Design Show)

Cheers to a new and beautiful year of design! Let’s celebrate the creative minds of the design industry, the forward thinking visionaries and manufacturers and take a look at the new aesthetics of 2023: MICROPLANTS Beautiful structures for all your microplants needs☘️ OUTDOOR LIVING IN CONTRASTS Black and white have never looked so good!👇 A…

2023 Kitchen design trends

The most reinvented room in your home is the kitchen. By far. Because of that, following the kitchen trends can be very insightful in what new living patterns are concerned. Here are some of the ones that I’ve spotted with my keen (22-year and counting) professional eye that I’m sure will fill in the 2023…

From candles on the dinner table to the chandelier above it

From gathering around the fire, to the fire on the table, to the light above it and what that did and where do we go next. Gathering around the fire The chill of the night, forgotten, the closeness of others, embraced, the loving hand of a forgiving universe present in the darkness of the sky….

Christmas decor traditions and their ritualistic performance

Christmas is the most famous ritual in the western world. Controversial in approach for many reasons, the ones that celebrate it agree on the importance of a specific decor to set the season’s festive mood. Like any other ritual, the careful assembly of parts and steps is critical in achieving a successful rite and passage:…

TRENDS 2022 Design Retrospective

Interior design is one of the greatest modes of personal expression. Over the past few years people have spent more time at home than ever before. In turn, they have started to hone in on their personal aesthetic, and create rooms that feel right to them. By focusing on the pieces that bring joy, colours…

Christmas traditions, dishes and how to present them

I am a Christian. I do not know how much of a believer but a Christian in terms of traditions. I was raised in Romania in a mixed Hungarian-Romanian family with many customs that did not fit one norm but rather straddled the two cultures.  Food tradition, like in any celebration everywhere in the world,…

Blue Fall – say what?

Everything in moderation as long as it has a little bit of blue, have you not heard the saying? Well.. if you didn’t, you do now. It is irrelevant if it exists or not because it should! With 2023 just around the corner, you better get your blues straight and get ready to spice up…

A much needed lifestyle trend change for Fall: social-islands and the fight against loneliness

When Malinowski coined the ubiquitous term in the 1920s, nuclear families had been at the root of most societies for more than 500 years; yet that was not always the case. In history, we see other constructs that have been much more successful in delivering a wide range of impressive lifestyle benefits as, both, precursors…

What I feel is who I am – Nature, the Renaissance and the future of colour, part 2

Colour and stories are interrelated. They are two forms of life that surround us, and because of that, they have tremendous importance to how we perceive space. It may not be the most immediate association, but as you think they do not belong together and we have nothing to learn from combining the two into…

3 Lifestyle Trends for Summer: confidence, self-care and incompleteness syndrome

My top 3 picks for this spring: Confidence at ease gets everyone smitten, Bite-size home self-care democratizes design, and incompleteness syndrome turns into a positive mantra Incompleteness syndrome turns into a positive mantra Most things in our lives are on the go. Seldom can we see a chapter fully closed and when we do, that…

Beautiful Ukraine, Kiev, art, and the sheer pleasure of being

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace A humanist at heart, it is hard to imagine what he would’ve thought if he had lived today. Dismayed by the lack of records documenting Russian domestic life at the time, his majestic novel is filled with vivid…